American Experience: The Amish DVD

Price: $19.99

Single DVD

The Amish intercuts historical analysis with contemporary footage to provide an unprecedented look at this highly private, little understood, and utterly unique community whose beliefs raise important questions about religious liberty in American life.

The Amish intercuts historical analysis with contemporary footage to provide an unprecedented look at this highly private, little understood, and utterly unique community whose beliefs raise important questions about religious liberty in American life.

I lived several hours from Lancaster county PA., and since Harrison Ford's movie Witness, the Amish have been rewarded and cursed with both tourist dollars, and unfortunately, tourist attention.

Well put the cameras away, and stay home. I have seen many Amish documentaries and reality shows. This American Experience offering is the best exposition on America's greatest anachronism. Nearing 2 hours long, the film takes its time in a hypnotic meditative pace through 4 seasons in a year of an Amish life.

How do you film a group of people whose religion forbids photography? The American Experience does the impossible here. Handling their subject like fine China, lives and ideas are carefully filmed and explored. A stunning visual reflection that echoes paintings by Millet, Courbet, and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky.

Original music by Saunder Juarriaans and Daniel Bensi transports this work into a realm of its own. By the final minutes, metaphors of independence (the firework sequence) and man's connection to nature, god, and time becomes a transforming and rewarding experience for viewers.